The Hindu Business Line : Exports register 1.11 pc growth in Dec

EXPORTS have registered a meagre 0.64 per cent growth during the first nine months of the current fiscal, with the Director-General of Commercial Intelligence & Statistics (DGCI&S) provisionally estimating exports for April-December 2001 at $32,571.98 million, as against $32,365.45 million for the corresponding period of the previous year.

For December 2001, exports were recorded at $3,697.88 million, marking a 1.11 per cent increase over the $ 3,657.31 million level of December 2000. The lackadaisical growth comes even as the Commerce Ministry's Medium Term Export Strategy for the Tenth Plan period (2002-03 to 2006-07) has targeted a 11.7 per cent compounded annual growth rate.

A similar sluggish growth trend had also been observed for imports, which were valued at $38,362.28 million during April-December 2001, representing a 0.31-per cent increase over the previous year's corresponding level of $38,242.34 million.

Imports during December 2001 were reckoned at $3,967.93 million, which was 1.02-per cent higher than the $3,927.86 million figure for December 2000.

The slack growth in imports has been mainly on account of the dip in international prices of petro products, which has resulted in a 14.64-per cent drop in oil imports from $12,449.65 million in April-December 2000 to $10,626.63 million in April-December 2001. On the other hand, there has been a 7.53-per cent increase in non-oil imports during the corresponding period, from $25,792.69 million to $27,735.65 million.

The trade deficit or export-import gap during April-December 2001 worked out to $5,790.30 million, which was lower than the corresponding figure of $5,876.89 million for the previous year. The trade deficit in December 2001, at $270.05 million, was marginally higher than the $270.55 million recorded for December 2000.

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Exports register 1.11 pc growth in Dec